Goals from Shinji Kagawa, Christian Pulisic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan piled further pressure on Jurgen Kramny's struggling side, who hover just above the Bundesliga drop zone
Borussia Dortmund kept their Bundesliga title challenge alive for another week with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Stuttgart at the Mercedes-Benz Arena on Saturday.
Dortmund are now seven points adrift of table-topping Bayern with three games to play after Pep Guardiola's men beat Hertha Berlin on the same day, as it looks increasingly likely that next month's DFB-Pokal final will be Thomas Tuchel's side’s only chance of silverware this season.
Bayern will capture their fourth league title in a row if they manage to beat Borussia Monchengladbach next Saturday, regardless of how BVB get on against Wolfsburg.
Bayern will capture their fourth league title in a row if they manage to beat Borussia Monchengladbach next Saturday, regardless of how BVB get on against Wolfsburg.
Shinji Kagawa opened the scoring against Stuttgart midway through the first half, netting his 12th goal of the season when he tapped home from a sumptuous Henrikh Mkhitaryan cross.
Dortmund doubled their advantage on the stroke of half-time as 17-year-old Christian Pulisic grabbed his second career goal when he was quickest to react to Mkhitaryan's saved effort.
The Armenian playmaker soon netted a goal of his own early in the second half, slamming home the rebound from a parried Adrian Ramos header.
Victory over Stuttgart extended Dortmund's unbeaten league run in 2016 to 14 games and condemned Jurgen Kramny's hosts to their third consecutive defeat to leave them hovering dangerously close to the relegation zone.
Tuchel continued his rotation policy of recent weeks, making four changes from the side which breezed past Hertha in the semi-final of the DFB-Pokal in midweek.
Top scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed out again with a toe injury, while there was a starting place for teenager Pulisic, who scored his first Dortmund goal in their 3-0 win over Hamburg earlier this month.
The visitors took the lead after 20 minutes through Kagawa, the Japan international the grateful recipient of a superb far-post cross from Mkhitaryan which was tapped home.
Pulisic made it 2-0 just before the break, pouncing on the rebound of Mkhitaryan's low drive from the edge of the area to convert.
And Mkhitaryan later became provider-turned-goalscorer for the away side after 55 minutes as he lashed home fiercely with his left foot after Ramos had seen his header kept out.
The winning margin could have been even greater as Dortmund were in control throughout, with Marco Reus and Ramos spurning presentable opportunities in the latter stages of the affair.
Stuttgart rarely troubled Roman Burki's goal throughout, although Georg Niedermeier will probably feel he might have done better after 72 minutes when his free header from a corner was easily saved.
Substitute Moritz Leitner – previously on loan at Stuttgart – should have made it 4-0 with minutes to spare as Mkhitaryan squared to him, but he slipped at the crucial moment as the midfielder's effort bounced back off the outside of the post.
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